Want to Have Dinner Shipped to Your Door? - Meet "Hello, Fresh" (Review)

Is meal planning difficult for you?  Is getting to the grocery store a hassle?  Are you stuck in the same quick, unhealthy, food-eating rut?

Hello Fresh just might be for you.

What is Hello Fresh?  Hello Fresh is a subscription service that plans healthy meals and does all of the shopping for you.  You choose which of the options you'd like, and a package will be delivered to your door soon after, containing everything that you'd need to prepare three healthy meals.

I received the opportunity to review Hello Fresh with the Mosaics Review Team, and I was eager to check this out.  There are two main options for your Hello Fresh box - Classic or Vegetarian - and each option can be ordered with servings for two or four people.

I chose to go the Classic route.  While the Vegetarian boxes do not currently give you a meal choice within that category, the Classic box features five meals, of which you choose three.  Right off the bat, I liked that the five choices featured beef, chicken, shrimp, sausage, and a veggie option, so there was no risk of eating a different version of the same meal.  I've been popping over to the website over the past few weeks, and I haven't seen repeat meals, so you'll get new options each week, too.

We were excited to find our Hello Fresh box on our doorstep one afternoon.  You can track these boxes, and the website tells you which day of the week they deliver to your area, so I knew it was coming, but still ... it was fun to find when we arrived home.

I was concerned about how well these super fresh foods would transport, but there was no need.  As you can see, the box was completely lined with thick insulation, with a greeting and the recipe cards on top.

Inside we found all of our food, neatly placed on top of THREE large freezer packs - the same kind that my grandmother's insulin is shipped in.  The ice packs were still rock solid and our food properly chilled.

I must say that I enjoyed the packaging a lot.  Each protein was in its own separate bag with a cute sticker detailing in which meal it was to be used.  The same goes for the other fresh ingredients - the ingredients for each meal were placed in a single bag with a cute label.  The non-perishable ingredients, like the canned coconut, were loose.

We decided to try the Spicy Thai Beef with Coconut Rice first.  I'd never had Thai food or coconut anything before, so this would all definitely be new.

Since this was a dish completely new to me, I followed the directions on the recipe card carefully.  I was happy to find that it came together in about 20-30 minutes and was very easy to assemble.  I was confused about the coconut milk; I wasn't sure about the size of the can, since it has a special label, and I didn't know if I needed to use it all, but I learned that all of the Hello Fresh ingredients are measured exactly, so again, I needn't have worried.  

I skipped the salt when cooking this dish just because I always do, and we decided that it needed it; but other than that, it was fantastic.  The coconut flavor was strong but yummy in the rice; the vegetables, although I thought there weren't enough in the beginning, turned out to be plenty, and the beef had just the perfect amount of spice.

I made this late one night for my husband and I, and I wasn't sure, at first, that there would be enough bulk for two seriously hungry people.  However, I filled our bowls and had some left over - and I wasn't able to finish off my serving.  The portion sizes are more than adequate.  This meal was my favorite.

We tried this dish next.  We chose to make the second two meals at one time, for all four of us, so that we could all sample everything.

This dish featured ground chicken made into meatballs and then served with pasta and tomato sauce.

Although I had thought this would be our favorite, it wasn't.  The sauce was very tomato-y - strange sounding, I know, but true - and even with the fresh herbs, it was rather bland.  It was okay - just not great.

This meal proved to be very interesting.  My husband loved the pork chops.  I'm not a pork fan, so they were just okay to me, but we all really enjoyed the carrots, even my husband - who is not a fan of roasted veggies.  On the other hand, we learned that we don't like leeks.  Without the leeks, this would have been a completely amazing dish, and I plan to make those carrots again.

Overall, Hello Fresh provides lots of fresh and healthy food and completely lives up to its name.  The herbs and veggies keep each meal full of flavor.  The wide variety will keep your taste buds hopping as you try new things each and every week.

With all of that said, will I be continuing with Hello Fresh?  Sadly, no.  It's not in our budget to pay this price for three meals, healthy and convenient though they may be.  If I were still working full-time outside of our home, however, Hello Fresh would be a great alternative to the quick, frozen, or boxed meals that we often ate during that season of our lives.  The convenience and health factor is high, and for a family short on time but craving fresh, healthy, easy-to-prepare food, Hello Fresh is a fantastic option.

I received a free Hello Fresh box in exchange for an honest review.

Origami Owl Review & GIVEAWAY!

When I was a little girl I loved watching my mom’s mother’s ring.  It was sparkly and pretty and had all of our birthstones on it, so when My Big Helper was born and I headed back to work, I hinted rather pointedly to my husband that I wanted a ring with her birthstone on it.

I received one soon after, and I loved wearing it.

And then Our Little Man was born.

Suddenly I wasn’t so excited to wear my ring anymore.  It was still beautiful, of course, and I liked that reminder of my firstborn, but I felt as if I was leaving out my son, and I disliked that guilty feeling.

 So I was wildly excited when I discovered Origami Owl.  This young company sells completely customizable jewelry, the main hook being their “Living Lockets.”  These round lockets have transparent front and backs with magnetic clasps.  What makes them special is the charms that you can put inside.  The charms are pewter and many are hand painted.  The charms come in a huge variety of shapes and finishes so that you can fill your locket with symbols that represent you.  Some of the options available are symbols for letters, food, faith, hobbies, careers, family, etc.

Origami Owl takes designing seriously, and so there are more options available.  The lockets come in five different finishes: silver, brushed gold, black matte, chocolate, and rose gold.  You can also attach larger items that dangle to put on your chain, like keys.  Round metal plates come in different finishes and are stamped with a variety of words.  These fit inside the lockets to provide a backdrop to the charms.

The Origami Owl designers have thought of everything.  There are long and short chains, fine ones and fancy ones.   There is even a line of chains that puts a small Living Locket over your heart for those special symbols that mean the most.

I personally love that I can customize my jewelry so completely.  I can include all aspects of my life in my locket – my faith, my family, my love of books and art.  I don’t have to stop there, though.  As I change and grow, as God brings new things into my life, I can change what I put into my locket.  It’s as easy as popping open the locket and dropping in a new charm.

And for such a young company, Origami Owl is heading in a good direction.  The company began when a fourteen-year-old girl started selling homemade jewelry as a way to save money for her first car.  With the support of her family, they took her successful backyard enterprise and turned it into a multimillion dollar company, choosing to sell their products through home-based “jewelry designers” so that other women could realize their dreams, too.

I received my first Origami Owl necklace from one of these designers – Aspen Tucker.  Aspen is passionate about Origami Owl and the many creative ways that the Living Lockets can be worn.  She’s even created a brand new way to wear them!  (More about that on Wednesday.)

Some other important things to know about O2:

• You can open the lockets and adjust the contents yourself.  It's as simple as opening a magnetic cabinet door.  You don't need any special tools and can be finished in seconds.
• Origami Owl is accepting Christmas orders through December 15th.  If you'd like to order a personalized Christmas gift, you have two weeks to get that order in!
• Shipping is one flat rate based on the amount of your order.  You pay $5.95 for orders under $100 or $7.95 for orders over $100, and your order will be shipped straight to your house.
• Your product usually arrives in your mailbox about one week from the day you ordered it.
• Aspen, our sponsor for today's post, will do fundraiser parties and donate a percentage of her commission to your favorite charity or organization.
• Origami Owl does Jewelry Bars, or home parties, and hostesses earn free products.

If you want to know more, Aspen can answer all of your questions!  You can write to her here.

Aspen wants everyone to know about these awesome products – and so she’s  generously giving away one of the bracelets that Origami Owl launched as a brand new line of products just a few weeks ago!  These, too, can be customized to suit you.  The locket can dangle or be set into the chain like a watch.  It comes in two different finishes, silver and gold, and special danglies can be attached to the chain. 

If you’d like a chance at winning your very own, brand-new Origami Owl bracelet, enter using the widget below.  The winner will be announced here and notified via email on Monday, December 9^th and will have 24 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.

If you’d rather go ahead and start shopping, Aspen has opened an online party just for us!  Remember, Christmas is only three weeks away!  O2 products make very thoughtful gifts.  Go here to check out the Origami Owl catalog online and begin shopping. 

Entry-Form

I am receiving a free Living Locket and chain for reviewing purposes in exchange for an honest review.  For more, see my Full Disclosure policy.

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Pointillism Fruit Review with See the Light

*This post contains affiliate links for See The Light, a Christian art education company.  Clicking on these links can help my family but in no way does this association affect the opinions that you will read below.  See the Light provided me with DVDs for reviewing purposes and is giving another set away to one of you.

When we were offered the opportunity to review See the Light's Pointillism Fruit Art Project, I jumped at it.  We've loved our See the Light Art Class DVDs, and I had high hopes for the lessons in the Art Project series.  To see our review of Art Class 1 & 2, click here.

We were not disappointed.

This DVD features the work of George Seurat, a French painter who developed the pointillism technique.  It contains four lessons, all of which are more than twenty minutes long and instruct in history, science, technique, and a devotion.  Who knew a few simple art lessons could do so much?

The first lesson begins with a biography of George Seurat.  It contains information about his life and the science that makes pointillism work.  Four of us viewed each of these lessons together: My Little Man, a six-year-old boy; My Big Helper, an eight-year-old girl; our friend A, who's ten, and me, a grown-up of undetermined years.  ;-)

The kids were a bit impatient with this first lesson - mostly because they couldn't wait to start painting.  They wanted to get messy!  The information contained in the lesson was fascinating to me, though, and I think it would be perfect for older students.  I loved how easy Pat's - the master artist's - presentation was and friendly she appeared.  This lesson alone would make it possible for this DVD to be used with a unit study about France, George Seurat, pointillism, color, or optic science!

In the second lesson the paints come out.  Over the course of the next three lessons the viewer is taught how to  create a still life using the pointillism technique.  The kids liked this part the best.  Demos continued throughout the lessons, although the kids' attention varied during this part.  They tended to watch just a bit to get a feel for Pat's technique and then to charge ahead on their own.  

Each child listened to the directions, though, and tried to follow them.  This little guy wouldn't draw big fruit for anything, but being willing to draw a certain thing is new for him.  I didn't push it, and it turned out that the smaller size of his drawing, although it prevented the pointillism technique from working out perfectly, matched his attention span for making the dots.  Since this lesson is geared for kids ages ten and up, he did well.

My Big Helper was excited to see the color wheel throughout the lessons and excitedly shared what she remembered from former art lessons.  This definitely activated prior knowledge for her and was a point of interest.  I appreciated Pat's depth  and the way that she continually referred to the color wheel to explain her color choice throughout the lessons.

Even when we thought there was nothing else we could do to make our pictures any better, Pat would break out the color wheel again and show us how to add even more detail to our work.  The girls each got a bit tired of this by the end, but I loved it.  It was very detailed information and fun to learn.  Again, if the girls were just a bit older OR hadn't done all of the lessons in sequence, they probably would have used this information a bit more.  As it was, they followed Pat's directions and added more detail for each step.

Our completed work demonstrates how specific and detailed the lessons are, as well as the ability of each child to follow the directions.  For this Little Man, following any kind of specific art lesson is a new thing.  He enjoyed the lessons and is very proud of how identifiable his fruit is.  Since he has frequently complained about his lack of artistic ability in the past, I'm happy to see him enjoying art.

My Big Helper is also very proud of her work.  

A said that she enjoyed completing the lessons.  She worked diligently and did a great job with her fruit.

I had fun, too.  I love being able to get lots in the mixing of colors.  I would've been happy to hang out at the table, making more and more dots, but the kids were calling .... sigh.  It's easy to see how engrossed Seurat became in his pointillism - though I don't think I could do work on a single piece for three years at a time.  I'd really like to be able to see his work after learning about it, though.

I would definitely recommend Pointillism Fruit with George Seurat.  These art lessons were well planned, detailed, and complete in that they pulled in the art history and science along with the actual technique.  The kids were thrilled with the 'professional' looking art that they made - and I think I need a house with more wall space to house it all!

Pros to Using Pointillism Fruit, in random order:

• easy-to-understand techniques
• a devotion in each lesson
• short, child-friendly lessons
• interdisciplinary lessons - included art history, science, geography, and biography, as well as art technique and extension ideas
• uses common household supplies - no special materials needed
• affordable price
• meets content standards for Visual Arts
• they're fun!

Cons to Using Pointillism Fruit, in random order:

• Truly, I can't think of any.

There's more good stuff to know about See the Light, though, and it's really important.  See the Light exceeds the National Visual Arts Standards.  They can be used as Fine Arts credit for any state in the US, and completing the video instruction alone - with all of their DVDs - satisfies 1/2 of a credit according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.  

What makes it even better is that See the Light will provide you with the information that you need to turn that half credit into a whole credit easily.  How great is it that they'll provide the plans necessary to get you all the way to a whole credit?

All in all, we loved these pointillism lessons, and I can't recommend them highly enough.

Have you tried See the Light yet?

I received a free copy of Pointillism Fruit from See the Light as part of the Mosaics Review Program in exchange for an honest review.